Glossae Aurelianenses super Statium

The Glossae Aurelianenses super Statium were the most widely diffused medieval commentary on the Thebaid, itself one of the most popular epics of the High Middle Ages. The glosses were broadly influential, shaping the adaptation of Statius’s masterpiece in the first Old French romance, providing Peter Abelard with historical information used in his theological writing, adorning the margins of Boccaccio’s personal copy of the epic, and even supplementing the Glossa Ordinaria in Nicholas of Lyra’s Biblical Postillae. The commentary on Thebaid 1 is edited here from its earliest witness, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. lat. fol. 34. In addition to furnishing copious examples of how grammar, rhetoric, cultural history, astronomy, and moral philosophy were applied to the explication of poetry in the twelfth century, the layout and sequence of the text as preserved in this manuscript provide the reader with privileged insight into the ways in which medieval magistri reworked the texts of ancient epics to enable progress in their students’ Latinity.

Preface

Acknowledgements

Sigla and Abbreviation

Introduction

Late Antique and Medieval Commentary on the Thebaid
What are the Glossae Aurelianenses?
Approaches to the Thebaid: Accessus and Glosses
Sources
Manuscript Tradition
Editorial Principles

Glossae Aurelianenses super Statium, Book 1

Bibliography